VideoGameCritic wrote:A larger question is, does mobile gaming pose a threat to the livelihood of the console market? I vote no.

For now, I agree, but look at what's happening in Japan. Consoles and portables are selling like crap, and mobile is thriving. Konami is transitioning to mobile. Square-Enix has moved more towards mobile. Even Nintendo is going to dabble in mobile. It's a little disheartening to see some of these awesome Japenese developers shift away from consoles.

VideoGameCritic wrote:A larger question is, does mobile gaming pose a threat to the livelihood of the console market? I vote no.

I agree. They're totally separate markets. There will always be a stable group of consumers who want to sit in front of their TV and play games with a controller rather than on a small touch screen. The latter offers portability but closes off too many gameplay possibilities to be a replacement for the former.

Yes and No. First, I agree they are different markets. The story of video games has been one of growth, as more people are playing them than ever so its not a zero sum game. Consoles are better at some forms of video games while mobile better or at least also good at others.

The markets are not independent however. We have seen the console market become focused on expensive AAA gaming, while mobile explores what can be done with low entry cost gaming, including porting over older and not so old console games.

Companies and talent will shift to mobile as new growth territory, or richer territory. Mobile gaming, while limited, will improve. Mobile devices that facilitate gaming will be developed, just as we have seen the shift to larger screens. Some games for consoles will be built with a mobile port in mind, which might increase things like QTEs which can be customized by platform.

We also have seen in music that quality loses to quantity, price and mobility as people went to compressed digital music on tinny but tiny ipods over richer sounds of analog on a giant expensive home system. Just as we lost music stores, physical game stores will also be threatened by mobile marketplaces, and the general acceptance of downloaded games. With music, who would turn back the dial 15 years? Yet the gains have come at some loss. Being an audiophile used to be popular, but they are a niche now.

Another analogy are to movies and tv (and to a lesser extent, radio and live theater). Movies competed with tv in the 50s and 60s, when tvs were small, black and white, with often poor reception and just one in a house, with gimmicks like 3D, better graphics with Panaramascope stuff, and going for massive big budget Epic big scope productions. Sound familiar?

So, mobile gaming is growing the population of gamers and consoles will be fine as far as their existence not being in jeopardy, but what games are on consoles, how we buy them, how they monetize our gaming habits, etc will be influenced by mobile gaming.

Just reviving this thread on the experience of Mobile gaming over time.

In my experience, A mobile device even a few years old begins a steep slide downward for gaming. Its not just that newer games won't work on the older operating system, its that even the older games stop working. Sometimes its because those games are also being updated with new versions all the time optimized for the latest version of the operating system. By the time the operating system has gotten a few versions away, the systems may sometimes be incompatible. Even if you don't update the games themselves, it still seems to fail as the games also need secondary software that is needed for basic functionality that you have updated. Its possible if you permanently keep the device offline, it might continue to work for longer, but even then I am having my doubts.

There is also the issue of rechargeable batteries over time, but even with a 5 year old mobile device that the battery seems fine on, even moderately sophisticated games fail to work. Its still fine for other uses, such as an e-reader, but not gaming.

So, even as people wax nostalgic for the original iPhone, unlike older hardware like a Commodore 64 or a Sega Genesis, I wonder if how much that iPhone is still capable of doing. Consumers may not care, but someday someone will build an 'oldsmartphoneslibrary.com' or something, but whatever phones they have will be paperweights.

I want to draw a distinction of portable gaming (Game boy, PSP, 3DS, maybe the Switch) and mobile gaming (iPhone, iPad, Android products). The portables are built for gaming, and may be built around physical controls. Mobile products are communications devices that game, or built using those operating systems, and often rely on touch screens primarily for input.

Where does that put the Nokia N-gage? Usually in portables, but in hindsight, maybe it's more a mobile device.

I can still game on 20 year old Nintendo portables, but a 5 year old Samsung Android OS Tablet, not so much.

I never thought mobile gaming was going to be big because frankly I never had any interest in it. If it doesn't tickle my fancy, it ain't gonna fly.

What amazes me is how there currently seems to be a CONSENSUS that mobile gaming does indeed SUCK! I don't even need to argue anymore. It's been settled. Maybe online gaming will be next. It's certainly on its way.

By mobile, I'm talking about the downloadable mobile phone games - not dedicated handhelds like the 3DS or PSP.